GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposals will have to address all the following points:

• Develop solutions for ensuring the performance and safety of a) seaports, b) connected inland waterways infrastructure c) connected hinterland land infrastructure, during periods of extreme weather events.
• Develop strategies minimising capacity loss of infrastructures during disruptive events, securing infrastructure assets or delivering the necessary redundancy or adaptive capacity when at the same time avoiding over-designing, adopting an inappropriate or irreversible design, based on vulnerability analysis and risk assessment.
• Demonstrate solutions to interconnect infrastructure health monitoring, traffic management and emergency management systems to support informed decision making during and after these events, also supporting possible redistribution of freight and passengers flows to complementary infrastructures. Solutions for rail to be harmonised with EU-Rail Programme projects implementing the Flagship Area 5.
• Build on innovative solutions for surveillance and prediction of climate change effects, such as the Destination Earth digital twins, and for identification of infrastructure points particularly vulnerable to climate change. Proposals should develop cross-modal strategies to upgrade (including physical upgrade) existing infrastructures and reduce their vulnerability, while using sustainable materials and construction techniques.
• Develop novel and improved governance models that enable cooperation across institutional, modal and national boundaries to cope with large-scale shocks and disruptions.
• Develop standard procedures and methodologies to foster the implementation of measures (structural, operational, institutional and social) to address climate risks and hazards. Include at least three pilot demonstrations of the proposed solutions in operational environment for three seaports with connected inland waterways infrastructure on CEF corridors. The pilots should select the most effective measures and combinations of measures and determine how and when they can best be implemented over time as conditions change.
• Evaluate the qualitative and quantitative impact of the proposed measures with a clear baseline for each pilot demonstration.
• Innovative infrastructure solutions should contribute to lowering the environmental footprint, resources and material consumption. Exploring Nature-based solutions (NBS) is an opportunity for creating sustainable, climate-resilient European transport infrastructure in a cost-effective manner, while producing substantial social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. The goal is smart, green, sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure, planned in a way that maximises positive impact on economic growth and minimises the negative impact on the environment and, significant and lasting degradation of ecosystems, fragmentation of habitats or loss of biodiversity, promoting environmentally friendly modes of transport and leading to the reduction of transport emissions.